


Untitled Babylon 5 Story

by ChandaK562



Category: Babylon 5
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 03:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChandaK562/pseuds/ChandaK562
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Talia returns to Babylon 5 months after the emergence of the alternate personality, but she might be returning only to die.  This is the first Babylon 5 story I wrote.  I had just seen parts of the first three seasons when the idea hit me in a dream.  I'm doing some rewriting on the first few parts as well as working on new parts at the moment.  Any suggestions for a title would be appreciated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The woman cautiously detached herself from the shadows in Downbelow and slid along the wall as carefully as she could at her size. She slipped down the hallway as quietly as possible, head down and mentally signaling people not to notice her. As soon as she was safely hidden in the shadows again, Talia Winters slumped against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting on the ground. She knew it would be almost impossible for her to get back up again but her feet and legs hurt so much. She had to rest for a bit and figure out what she was going to do next.

She let out a muffled moan as she rubbed her aching back with one hand while pressing the other against her swollen stomach. Despite the pain, she smiled for a moment as she felt the gentle movements beneath her fingers before turning her mind to how she was going to get out of the fix she was in.

Thanks to the alternate personality Psi Corps had implanted in her, if any of her friends, her only true friends, she realized now, saw her they would most likely want to boot her right back off the station again. At least there was one good thing about her condition. It pretty much rendered her un-bootable. Anyone trying to move her would most likely give themselves a hernia, although she wasn't quiet willing to test that out by dropping in on Susan Ivanova. After what the alternate personality had done, she was sure Susan would ignore the pain of a hernia easily for the pleasure of tossing her out the nearest airlock.

She wished that Andrew, the Ranger who had escorted her to the station, had told her what plans there were to continue her journey to Mimbar. It would make things so much easier if she knew who she could turn to for help. But by the time it became obvious that a stop at Babylon 5 for medical care would be necessary, all she could think about was her babies, and trying to keep them safe. And now she was alone, with no idea who to trust or ask for help.

"As if anyone would come close enough for me to ask them anyway," she muttered as she pulled herself to her feet again by getting onto her hands and knees and using her arms as leverage to get herself up. For some reason, everyone seemed to flee at the sight of her. Maybe they were afraid she would fall and crush them or something. It had made Downbelow much safer though. Even the most dangerous criminals were frightened at the sight of her condition.

Going to Doctor Franklin was out, even if he was the reason that she was on the station in the first place. The intent when Andrew brought her there was for him just to take a look at her, and do whatever had to be done to keep her babies safely inside long enough for her to get to Mimbar. There had been no thought of having to ask him to hide her, and in her condition she didn’t see any way that hiding would be possible for any real length of time.

If she could just go to Susan or Michael. Maybe it made her weak or maybe it was just hormones and exhaustion talking, but she would give anything to find her two friends, throw herself into their arms and know that she would be safe, that they would protect her and her babies. If this had happened months ago, she knew what would have happened. They would have been horrified, they would have wanted the head of whoever had hurt her, and had done this to her. Bester would have probably had a very painful encounter with the station reactor. And then she would have had nine months of the pair of them hovering over her, fussing and not wanting to let her lift a finger, and then running around like chickens with their heads cut off at the first labor pain. She was barely able to blink back tears as she thought of it. They would have loved her. They would have loved her and wanted her and her babies no matter what just a few months ago and now because of what had happened, because of what that thing that had been put in her head had done.... She wanted to believe that they would understand if they saw her, that they would somehow be able to tell that it was really her, but she couldn’t push away the fear that she would be rejected and her babies.... The pain of rejection would be bad enough for her, but for two innocent, open, unprotected minds.... Could she honestly expect them to see her babies as hers, babies that were loved and wanted, and not as an unpleasant reminder of what had happened? No, no matter what she wanted, she couldn’t take that sort of risk with her children. She had to protect them.

Talia forced herself away from the wall, and blinked again to clear away the unshed tears. She knew she couldn't stay there any longer. She didn't have much time left. Psi-Corps was getting closer all the time, and the babies weren’t going to wait much longer to come. She absolutely had to get to Mimbar. She slowly moved down the corridor again, a decision made about where to go. Ambassador Delenn made the most sense no matter how much she wished she could go to Susan or Michael. Andrew had spoken of her with the highest respect and Delenn.... She had been there when that thing had taken over, of course, and she knew what had happened, but she hadn’t been emotionally involved. That would make things easier. She hadn’t been one of the people she had hurt, so maybe she would be willing to actually listen to her and help, if she didn’t already know about the situation. It was the only possible option she could think of that had any hope of working. Now if she could just reach her quarters without being seen and convince Delenn to help her.


	2. Chapter 2

Talia looked around in dismay at the area she had just stumbled into. Huge tanks of water and pipes. The lighting was even worse than in downbelow and there wasn’t a sign of a person anywhere. This definitely was not the way to the ambassadorial wing of the station. She slumped back against the wall and started trying to figure out how in the world she had got lost. Of course, the water reclamation unit wasn't exactly on the station tour so she didn't know to avoid it but still... How could she have gotten turned around like that? She had only been gone from the station for nine months. Surely they hadn’t changed the layout of everything in that short length of time.  
Suddenly Talia felt a much too familiar prickling in the back of her neck and she instinctively ducked, slipping back into the shadows again as she heard footsteps approaching.

"Talia, I know you're in here," a male voice called out in a tone that sent shivers down her back. "Did you really think that you could escape us? The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father. It’s time for your children to come home where they belong."

Talia carefully peeked out of her hiding place. A psi cop, the same one who had killed the ranger who had brought her here. From where he was standing, he was blocking the way she had came, and access to that lift. She moved further back into the shadows and started to slowly ease her way across the vast area, making herself smaller than she imagined possible in her condition. If she could just get to the far side of the reclamation unit, then she might be able to find another lift and get away, at least for the moment. She stifled a sob as she thought of the lifts. What she wouldn't give to have one open and find Mr. Garibaldi standing there now. Even if he couldn’t trust her thanks to what had happened, he was a good man. She knew he would protect her and her babies.

"Talia, make it easy on yourself," the man said as he moved in her direction. How had he seen her? She kept moving not making a sound. Maybe he didn't really know exactly where she was. He was moving slowly as if he wasn’t in a rush to grab her, as if he knew he could capture her at any time, and there was nothing she could do about it. No, she had to keep going, couldn’t give in to the fear the psi-cop wanted her to feel. She had escaped Corps custody on Mars, she had made it this far. There had to be a way out. They weren’t taking her babies, not while she still had breath in her body to fight them.

Suddenly, her brain burned as the psi cop blasted her with an image of what was going to happen when she was captured. She bit back a scream as she saw the man cutting her open, taking her children away and leaving her there to bleed to death. Her fingers brushed her stomach as she struggled to fight back, cutting off the image by sending out a telekinetic blast that slammed the man into a nearby wall.  
Talia staggered back from the strain of the blast. She had never used the telekinesis to that degree, had honestly been afraid to find out if it was possible, especially with the babies, but now she didn’t have a choice. If they were going to survive and stay free, she had to fight with every resource she had. Even as she was struggling to stay on her feet, she forced herself to turn and run. She had to get away before he got up. Suddenly, before she had managed to go more than a few meters, a huge pain ripped through her and she staggered back, clutching at her stomach as she found herself falling. A second later, she was in the water and sinking. She kicked out frantically, the skirt of her dress wrapping around her legs, making movement difficult, pushing with her arms until she reached the surface again. Her head had just appeared at the surface, when she sensed motion and felt the prickle on her neck once more. She tried to move out of the way but she was a fraction of a second too slow. She felt something slam into her head, sending her into darkness. She only had time to let out one muffled scream before she slid silently under the water again and this time didn’t come back up.


	3. Chapter 3

Michael Garibaldi had ended up in the water reclamation unit purely by accident. Somehow, the tube had let him off on the wrong level. Of course, he had already exited and the tube had quickly moved on before he realized the mistake, forcing him to call for another one. He barely restrained himself from hitting the panel in frustration as he remembered the last time the tube system had pulled something like this. 

Jeff had told him how Talia had noticed he always seemed to be in the tube she was in. He should have told her the truth about that, but somehow he doubted she would believe that some sort of glitch in the system kept sending him in her direction, even when he had been heading in the complete opposite way when he had stepped inside. 

Talia, Bester was going to pay some day, some how, for what the Corps had done to her. Talia had been a true innocent, and Bester and company had destroyed her without a thought. They probably even had her body still on ice somewhere for experimenting instead of letting her rest in peace. Once more he regretted what he hadn't done when the alternate personality had taken over, that he hadn't ended things for Talia. A broken neck would have been too obvious, but there were undetectable poisons out there, easier to find than he wanted to think of most of the time. He could have slipped her something without any trouble. But no, he had been too much of a coward to do that one last thing for Talia, and instead of a merciful death at the hands of a friend, she had died on some dissection table. As bad as Bester was, he wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't bothered to knock her out before they started cutting.  
After a moment, he made himself force the thought of Talia and her fate aside. Maybe he would call maintenance when he got to his quarters and report the tube glitch to them. The last thing he needed was to deal with a glitchy transport when he wasn't going to have at least the pleasure of Talia's company for rides half the station out of his way.

He had just reached out to call for the tube again when he heard the scream. The voice sounded so familiar, but it couldn't be. He couldn't be hearing a dead woman. It was just because he had been thinking of Talia, had remembered how the tube always seemed to bring him to her, but still… He headed into the reclamation unit automatically. He knew he was wrong about who the voice was but there still was a person in there that sounded like they needed help.

He stopped when he saw someone kneeling by one of the water tanks, fishing around in the water for something. "What do you think you're doing?" he called as he moved forward with his PPG drawn. That scream and someone down where no one but maintenance should be, something was seriously off. He hadn't taken more than a few steps when he suddenly felt a wave of something wash over him, like a voice was silently calling out 'DANGER.' The man jumped to his feet, spinning around at the sound of Garibaldi's voice. A psi-cop. How had one of them got onto the station without anyone knowing? His weapon was out but that silent warning had given Garibaldi the edge. He fired before the telepath could get off a shot, sending the man crashing to the ground with a shot to the heart. Too bad it wasn't Bester.

Michael hurried over to the tank, shoving the psi-cop's body aside so that he could see what the man had been looking for in the water. He had a bad feeling what he was going to find, and he silently cursed the psi-cop and Bester as he searched the water. A moment later, he saw the body, floating face down just below the surface of the water. It was a woman, he noticed, as he reached out and tried to grab her, with blonde hair drifting loosely around her almost like a mermaid's. He could just touch the body, but he couldn't get enough leverage to pull her out of the water. No choice but to go in. How deep were those tanks, anyway? He quickly slid into the water and reached out, turning the woman as he grabbed hold of her pillowing her head against his shoulder so her head was out of the water. In the darkness of the tank, he couldn't really get a good look at her face and every movement of her body pushed him down and send water splashing up blurring his vision. She was quiet, though, way, way too quiet, no noise, not even something like the telepathic shout that he couldn't believe he had somehow heard. Not good. Psi-Corp wasn't going to kill another woman on his watch. He wouldn't let them win this time. Get her out, get her tended fast, they weren't going to win this time.

He paddled to the edge and lifted the woman up, getting her body over the side of the tank and rolled her onto the the ground, dunking himself in the process before pulling himself up and out. He knelt by the woman, reaching out to grasp her shoulders and roll her over. As soon as he moved her, he was shocked to see that he had been right about the voice that he heard. Talia, somehow it was Talia laying there at his feet unnaturally still and silent, her body empty of any signs of life.


End file.
